The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for automatically forming and filling containers, such as water bottles.
Heretofore, such apparatus are primarily used in industry, in particular in the beverage industry. The apparatus (or plants) are operated stationarily and the workstations and conveyers required are permanently installed in a large production building. Stationary plants are designed for high throughput rates which, for example in the field of the beverage industry, might be of the order of up to 40,000 bottles per hour. In order to achieve this, high-performance workstations and conveyers are employed.
EP 0 950 606 B1 discloses a stationary machine for automatically forming and filling containers. For this purpose, this machine has a container forming station designed as a blowing station. By means of the blowing station, bottles are formed from bottle preforms, which are composed of a thermoplastic material, under the action of heat and of compressed air. The bottles are filled in a workstation and are subsequently closed in a closing station. Grippers are used as a conveyer, by means of which the bottles are moved between the individual workstations.
EP 1 606 371 B1 discloses a plant in which a conveyer constructed from clamping jaws is employed. The clamping jaws are arranged on both sides of the bottles, specifically transversely to their transport direction, in each case in the manner of a rake. The bottles are moved forward by the left and right clamping jaws being displaced alternately. Plants are also known, the conveyers of which are constructed from what are known as transport stars, entry stars and exit stars, as is described, for example, in DE 10 2005 015 565 A1 or in DE 199 28 325 A1.
The stationary plants described above have in common that they all have conveyers where the movement of the bottle preforms and of the bottles between the individual workstations involves hand-over movements or grip-around movements. In a gripper-based conveyer, the movement of the bottles takes place in such a way that the bottles are picked up by various grippers in a sequence defined by the processing flow and are thus moved between the individual workstations. Even in the case of a conveyer constructed from transport stars, entry stars and exit stars, the bottles are moved forward by being handed over again and again. In both types of conveyers, the container preform or the container is grasped at a first location, such as at a first workstation, by a transport element, such as a gripper or a transport star, in order then to be delivered at a second location. In a conveyer of rake-like type, the bottles are moved forward by being again and again gripped around by the left and right clamping jaws.
The hand-over movements and grip-around movements involve relative movements. On the one hand, they involve relative movements between a transport element of the conveyer and the article to be transported and thus to be grasped, as is the case in a gripper-based conveyer, a conveyer constructed from transport stars, entry stars and exit stars, or a conveyer of rake-like type. These relative movements are therefore relative movements between a transport element and an article spatially separated from the latter. On the other hand, they involve relative movements between individual transport elements of the conveyer itself, as is the case in a conveyer constructed from transport stars, entry stars and exit stars or a conveyer of rake-like type. In order to enable such relative movements, the individual components of the conveyer must be oriented very accurately with one another and with respect to the workstations when a plant is set up. Comprehensive adjustment and leveling work is therefore necessary when a plant is being set up and can usually be carried out only by specially trained personnel.
The result of the complicated adjustment and leveling work is that the known plants are not suitable for mobile use. A mobile use is desirable, however, when a large number of people are to be catered far away from civilization for a lengthy period of time. Typical applications may include military training exercises or deployments of major military units, but also humanitarian commitments, for example during disaster aid in an earthquake zone. Mobile water treatment devices are already available, inter alia, by the present assignee. By means of mobile water treatment devices, raw water, such as water from a stagnant pool discovered in the region of action can be treated to produce drinking water. However, bottle filling as in the beverage industry has not been possible so far under the rough circumstances of a mobile use.
An apparatus for automatically forming and filling containers for mobile applications should be of highly robust design. On the one hand, it should withstand transport into the region of action. On the other hand, it should function reliably even under rough operating conditions and after setting up and dismantling. Moreover, it should be capable of being put into operation again after a change of location without complicated setting and adjustment work. It should also be simple to repair. The apparatus known from the prior art do not fulfill these requirements.